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With Jennings iffy for preseason finale, Pistons adjust on the fly - again

The perils of planning. Every time Stan Van Gundy decides to take a look at some different lineup combination, fates intervene. For tonight’s preseason finale, with rookie Spencer Dinwiddie set to make his debut, he wanted to look at two Pistons point guards playing together from among the group of Dinwiddie, Brandon Jennings and D.J. Augustin.

Oops. That plan is now in peril with Jennings sitting out the morning shootaround with Achilles tendon pain. It’s not expected to be anything more than fatigued from training camp pounding, but it’s another opportunity lost.

Coaches usually try to use the last preseason game as a dry run for the regular-season opener, at least for a half, by using his anticipated starting lineup and establishing a rotation pattern. How much will the Pistons look tonight like Van Gundy imagined they would look for next Wednesday’s opener at Denver?

“Not very,” he said after shootaround. “Brandon didn’t go through walk-through, so I don’t know if he’ll play tonight. (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, knee) still won’t play tonight. We want to give Spencer and Joel (Anthony, acquired in trade less than a week ago) minutes. It’ll be their first time playing with us. It’s not going to be ideal, but it’s stuff that’s necessary to be done and these are all steps we need to take.”

The idea to experiment with two point guards together was born of necessity with both Caldwell-Pope and Jodie Meeks (back) went down in preseason. The trade for Anthony was necessitated by the “cardiac episode” that has sidelined Aaron Gray for all of training camp and still clouds his status, compounded by the two-game absence to start the season forced by Greg Monroe’s suspension.

Josh Smith missed two days of practice this week with a slightly sprained ankle suffered in Saturday’s win at Atlanta, but he returned Wednesday and will play tonight.